The ending of Lord of the Flies is a relief, and ultimately not expected from how
much hell is raised until the last scene. It is a 'happy ending' to what the
ending could have been if William Golding ended it as an abrupt ending for the
reader to decide what happens , or if he made everyone die in the end. When the
Navy comes to rescue the boys, not only is it a surprising change of events and
happy one at that, but it is symbolic to what the story lacked the whole time.
The ending scene with the Navy saving them is the only time in the story where
there is the presence of "grown-ups". When the naval officer talks to
Ralph, as a grown-up, he speaks to Ralph using child like references to show
the boys' immaturity of it all. What happens to the boys from what they do is
very real and truly disturbing, and what happens to them could easily happen
with grown-ups, but because they're kids the naval officer sees it as crazy
play, and not true insanity. "'Fun and games,' said the officer"
(Golding 206). After the naval officer asks Ralph if there are any grown-ups
around and finds out there are none, he jumps to the conclusion of the boys'
actions as games, because they're kids, not thinking of how horrid everything
was.
A great moment in the ending scene
was when the naval officer was going to take them home, but asked who was in
charge, who was the "grown-up" of the group of boys. "'Who's
boss here?' 'I am,' said Ralph loudly. A little boy, who wore the remains of an
extraordinary black cap on his red hair and who carried the remains of a pair
of spectacles at his waist, started forward, then changed his mind and stood
still" (Golding 207). As Golding describes Jack coming forward to try and
take Ralph's leadership and argue that he was the leader, he realizes Ralph's
assertive "I am" and his presence, and so he stops himself, letting
Ralph stand as the leader. This is a great way of showing how Ralph was the
true leader all along, and Jack was only the violent up-riser. Another thing
about how Golding describes Jack as "A little boy" is interesting,
because they're kids, but they aren't littluns anymore and they've gone through
a lot. But under Ralph's leading presence and the power of the naval grown-ups,
Jack was now seen as a little boy.
In one of the last lines, Ralph shows his
emotion for Piggy's death and shows what a loss it is. "Ralph wept for the
end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of
the true, wise friend called Piggy" (Golding 207-208). Piggy represented
many things, but most importantly he represented innocence and intelligence,
and showed the darkness of man's heart in Jack and basically everyone else at
times. Finally, after everything goes down, and being rescued, Ralph's emotion
can't be controlled and is released, and he realizes that Piggy was a true
friend, and Piggy was the reason for their survival in every way... the
survival of Ralph's soul. The ending of Lord
of the Flies is brilliant in many ways such as these, and no alternate
ending could have been as effective as this one.
